From LaBelle, Florida for Hendry and Glades County and the Lake Okeechobee region. Don Browne, editor.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Dad Was Not A Captain Of Industry

FATHERS DAY 2012

by T.W. Bill Neville

My Father would have been one hundred and twelve years old in November of 2012, but he only made it to age 74, passing on in 1974. Although that is 38 years ago, it seems like he has never left me and my two brothers, now down to one since my next oldest died in 2008.

My Dad was not a captain of industry, or a world traveler, or a "bon vivant", he was a devoted husband and Father who got up every day and went out and punched a clock in order to provide for his family. I now know we were poor, but everybody we knew was poor, so it never was an issue, since he put food in our bellies, clothes on our backs, and a roof over our heads. Not once did I ever hear him speak of envy, regret or hopelessness and "going" on the County dole.

Strange as it may seem, he drew deep inner strength from of all people Mahatma Gandhi's writings and professed philosophies of life. I still have one of his most treasured teachings from Gandhi, and with your indulgence I would like to present it here in memory of my Father, Thomas F. Neville(1900/1974.)

And as my Dad would have said, "Bill, you will find that these dangers, as simply put as they are, can and will, if exercised, define you as a person your entire life." I Iike to think that I have not disappointed him as I remember him again on this Fathers Day, 2012.